I didn't even remember the post from last June, but then took time to look it up. Not bad, considering it conveys my deep-felt belief on what makes for effective writing. So I thought, what the heck? It still rings true. So let's run it again, edited in parts, as a way to once again share the power and beauty of the written word.

How much would you pay for a ray gun that took over other people's minds? Good writing, in PR and business, does just that.

The analysis was based on the presumption that most written work, especially that done by the media, is written at a sixth-grade level. It's an urban legend that I have also been guilty of repeating, at times suggesting that a news release or executive speech needs to be simplified to a "sixth-grade level."

Friday, September 23, 2011

At yesterday's f8 Developer Conference, Facebook unveiled the biggest update to its social networking platform since it launched in 2004. I'm not going to get into all the technical aspects of Timeline. And I'm not going to get into the Facebook versus Google debate or pontificate about which will win in the end (in this post at least). I can't predict that. I do know that Facebook has a huge lead in the space. It's becoming another Web, a second Web if you will.

Hastings' honesty is startling, considering that leaders today rarely take the blame and instead choose to pin problems on others. Particularly telling of this entire situation is where Hastings made his confession. Online. On the company's own blog. Direct to customers. Not mediated, deliberated, or reinterpreted by others.

In doing so, Hastings presents a compelling case by sharing his angst and explaining the difficulty any organization faces in embracing change. It's tough, he acknowledges, to accept a changing world, and difficult to know how fast is too fast to move a company forward.

Our reasoning was simple. We think there's a lot of PR potential in reality TV that isn't readily apparent. Understanding reality TV, especially a new generation of working man shows that cover the blood and guts of American small and family business, offers one of the few opportunities left to place products and clients on episodic TV.

Some, surprisingly, aren't paid opportunities. For instance, a recent episode of "Flipping Out" featured a client's female personal care product. And don't underestimate the celebrity status gained by reality show stars. A recent event hosted by a Real Housewife of New Jersey attracted so many other housewives to a client's store opening that the line ran a block long.

Our tongue-and-cheek call for submissions resulted in scores of new ideas -- many of which were so off-color that we simply couldn't publish them on Gregarious. And a number of them were simply hilarious. Feel free to read some of the submissions.

But of all the ideas, one stood out above the rest, according to our own reality TV maven Michelle Larkin, a Gregory FCA senior account representative who closely follows the genre.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Last October, I did the unthinkable for a PR person. I ripped the media. More precisely, I ripped my beloved CNN. In that post, I explained my own admiration and exasperation for a declining network that had jump-started my career and served as a worthy platform for client appearances and sparring sessions for some 25 years.

To me, Morgan is the biggest story and perhaps the most exciting new voice on any news network. If you didn't see it last week, you missed an incredible interview with Rick Santorum that made the far-right candidate for president squirm and sweat, reducing him to a seeming impersonation of the "The Office's" Michael Scott.

Morgan's not afraid to ask tough questions and then let them lay out on the table as if he's on a bad blind date in order to survey the response. He's a confident interviewer who doesn't need to color the questions with his own opinions or commit the ultimate sin of showing off his own intelligence through the construction of his questions. (Spitzer was famous for that, resulting in his interviewing himself but strangely never asking about Ashley Dupré.)